Christology in 3 Minutes

I'm studying Christology in this my third year at Oscott, so I found this video posted on the Hermeneutic of Continuity both relevant and entertaining (and completely true)! The basics are all there...

Click HERE to watch it.

That's my King... Do you know Him?

Day of Recollection - St Therese

On Sunday we had a beautiful reflection from Canon John Udris of Northampton Cathedral, a priest who trained here at Oscott in the 80's. He has a great love of St Therese of Liseux, being part of the committe that organised her relics coming here, and so he gave us a day of recollection about her in preparation for the relics arriving at St Chad's cathedral on Saturday. He spoke of three themes which run throughout her 'Story of a Soul' and which can be of immense help for us. Firstly, she recognised and embraced her own weakness, realising that it was in her nothingness that God loved her. In this way she was happy to see herself imperfect, and encouraged those around her to be the same. Secondly, she had immense trust in God. The French priest Fr Jean Lafrance says that her confidence is the way to Love, and Fr John Udris said that her trust worked miracles (rather like Our Lord saying that if we only had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains). Having no trust in her own nothingness, she put it all in the God on whom she depended for Everything. Lastly, Fr John talked of her great love. Similarly perhaps to Mother Theresa of Calcutta, St Therese came to discover in her own life a 'call within a call' - more than simply being a Carmelite nun, she felt that she was called to be Love in the heart of the Church, and she burned with a desire to make God loved by others as much as she loved Him.

When she was a little girl, she and her elder sister Celine were offered a toy from a box of assorted things. Celine thought for a while and then picked something, but when it came to St Therese, she said, 'I take it all.' That is her attitude to God. She takes all the grace and mercy He has to offer, even if her way is the Little Way, unnoticed and humble. She wanted likewise to give all to God, strewing the petals of her life before him. How fitting it is that this saint, who wanted so dearly to be a missionary and a doctor of the Church, is now able to be both, so many years after her death! Let's hope and pray that the visit of her relics will awaken our hearts and the hearts of our nation to the vast ocean of love that the Father means to pour into us.

Weird...

My mum sent me a link today to the website of a small Anglican parish in East Tuddenham, Norfolk, which has an early 20th century tripdych displaying an unusual combination of saints. All of the saints have some connection to East Anglia or to current events in the life of the Church. In the middle of the tripdych is Christ in majesty. On the left is St Therese, Julian of Norwich and Our Lady, and on the right are Ss Francis, John Vianney and Felix. Now Our Lady is very important to East Anglia because of Walsingham, Julian of Norwich is an obvious native, and Felix is the patron of the diocese, as the bishop who evangelised this area in the 7th century. St John Vianney, as patron of priests, is being commemorated in this Year of the Priest which marks his 150th anniversary of death, St Therese's relics are in the country this month (we are seeing them next week), and St Francis was the focus of Oscott's pilgrimage to Assissi in June, during which we made a concerted effort to pray for vocations (and now have 8 new seminarians starting). All these saints have in some way influenced us East Anglian seminarians, and here they are all together, in a right hodgepodge of holiness!

Apparently this small church of All Saints was given the tripdych as the result of another Anglican parish closing in Norwich. I'd love to go and see the piece sometime, maybe have a pseudo pilgrimage...




You can see the whole thing here...

Cause of our joy

Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of the nativity of Our Lady: the cause of our joy. For the younglings, it also marked the end of our very first week here at Oscott College and the end of our honeymoon period, as we were launched into lectures at the start of this week.

At the moment, I'm enjoying these early starts too - something which I wasn't very much of an advocate in my previous life outside the seminary gates - but we shall see how long that lasts! Apparently, the chapel gets colder too. Eeek!

Since the Bishop kindly said he would send me here all those months ago, I've been excited about arriving and moving into my new room (which is of generous proportions!), and now I'm eagre to get going, using all the wonderful resources here at the college. There is just so much bounty to be had in the treasury of our Catholic faith, spiritually and intellectually, I can't wait to take a bite. All this around us is for our benefit, so that we may be formed into priests, praise God, to serve His people outside in the real world. Socialising, studying, making the occasional mistake, is all there to deepen our relationship with God, a portal to the mysterious depths of His love for us. How fitting, then, that the college's patroness is His holy Mother, Mary, the portal who brought Him to us and continues to lead us to Him.

Holy Mary, Mother of our Lord and cause of our joy, pray for seminarians, that we may be able to make the same fiat as thee.

A Year in the Heart of London, in the Heart of the Church

Once again St Patrick's Evangelisation School (SPES) is preparing for a new year starting in October, and is still open to any young people, between ages 20-30, who are interested in taking part. The year is one of discerning God's call for you, lived in community, in the life of London's busy West End but also in the heart of the Church, praying daily and studying the teachings of the Faith, but also reaching out to those without hope through evangelisation and service. It is well worth the risk, and as Fr Alex the School's founder says often, when you give to God, you receive a hundred fold! For more information, see their webpage here.

Come Along! Sunday Exposition and Evening Prayer

During the Year of the Priest, we are going to open up our Sunday Evening Prayer at Oscott to anyone who wants to join us. There will also be about 15 minutes Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament beforehand, with Benediction to finish. Please come by if you are in the area! The doors to the college chapel open at 6.15 pm, with the service starting a 6.30. The address of the college is

Chester Road (at the intersection with College Road)
Sutton Coldfield (to the north of Birmingham)
B73 5AA

We'd love to see you! By joining our prayers together we can contribute to a spiritual renewal in all priests.

Full(er) House

Well the induction week has gone fine, and our eight new seminarians have had no problems settling in. The rest of the community arrived yesterday, and we kicked off the year with a votive Mass to St John Vianney. Eveyone seems happy to be back, and even our singing in chapel is full of new gusto. It's nice to have a fuller house this year, and apparently the numbers have increased for all the English seminaries. Long may it continue!

Hope everyone has had a happy memoria of Blessed Mother Theresa.

New seminarians!

Today is the first day of the Induction Week for the new seminarians at Oscott, and we are fortunate enough to have 8 starting this year. Two of these are from East Anglia (Simon and Ben), so please keep them in your prayers as they begin their life in Oscott. The other first years are for the dioceses of Northampton, Birmingham, Nottingham, and the Sion community and the Vocationist Fathers based in Holywell. May they all find Oscott a good place in which to discern the Lord's call for them.

Walsingham Youth 2000

At the weekend I went to the Youth 2000 pilgrimage at Walsingham, with the intention of recharging my spiritual batteries before returning to seminary. It was a wonderful couple of days, spent catching up with people, prayer, and talks. This year Eduardo Varastegui, a Mexican actor and producer of the pro-life film Bella, spoke of his conversion from an immoral Hollywood lifestyle to a life spent trying to glorify God through his talents. He said that through the constant questioning of his English teacher, he came to realise that he was not living as if he believed in God, or as if he believed that his body was a temple of the Holy Spirit. He decided then to reject all film offers that compromised his faith, his family, or his latino culture (which he said had suffered sever stereotyping in Hollywood). Because of this resolution, he had no work for four years, and it was not until his spiritual director suggested he produce his own films that he found a way of influencing the film scene. His film Bella, which won the Toronto film festival, has a strong pro-life story, and has so far caused at least one hundred women to cancel their abortion appointments and have their child. Eduardo plans to produce more films promoting the dignity of the human person, including a life of Mother Teresa.

During his testimony his humility came across particularly - he was evidently nervous addressing so many young people, and he was also choked with tears of gratitude for what had happened in his life. May his work bear great fruit, and help to build what John Paul II called the 'civilisation of love.'

Cure d'Ars

Happy Feast Day of St John Vianney! Having let the blog slip somewhat over the summer, it seems appropriate to mark the 150th anniversary of the man who is a model for priests and seminarians everywhere. St Jean Vianney was intitally thought to be unsuited to the priesthood because of his difficulty with latin and the academic courses at the seminary, but on the merit of his evident goodness and zeal he was ordained priest and soon sent to the small village of Ars near the city of Lyon. He prayed to God that he might endure any suffering God sent him on behalf of the conversion of his parish, taking very literally his task as mediator between God and men. His frequent visits to his parishioners, his obvious devotion to the Mass and the Eucharist, and his presence in the confessional brought about a change that affected not only Ars but the surrounding towns and cities, so that even Lyons eventually had a special rail service to Ars to cater for all those who wanted to be confessed there! The words of the Gospel today, that Jesus 'felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd,' are reflected in the Cure's own life of self-giving to the Church.

I really wish someone in Hollywood would make a drama about the Cure's life - I know he would hate it, but it would be a great tool for evangelisation, and his life would make a great movie!